The Cardiff Book of Days (48 page)

2004:
The Wales Millennium Centre officially opened. It was the first national cultural facility to be built in Wales for over fifty years and had been financed by the National Lottery. Events during the week included a firework display and a concert with Owain Arwel Hughes conducting the Cory Band. The key officially opening the building had travelled all around the world and arrived in Cardiff by boat. (
Western Mail
)

1909:
A leather-bound album of photographs was presented by the Cardiff & District Temperance and Band of Hope Union to Mrs Rosa Bella Bartlett of Newport Road, Cardiff, to mark her 1,500th Saturday night meeting and twenty-nine years of service to the Cardiff Blue Ribbon Choir. The choir had been founded in 1881 to promote the cause of teetotalism and had been very successful in its work. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1961:
Independent television company WWN (Wales West & North), born out of dissatisfaction about the very limited amount of Welsh language programming on the Independent Television network, was forced to renege on its promise to broadcast programmes in Welsh at peak times. There were complaints that the company had gone back on its word. (Gerald Talfon Davies, ‘When the Capital Made News' in
The Cardiff Book, Vol.2
, 1974)

2010:
Customers bade a sad farewell to furniture store Maskey's as it ceased trading after 112 years. Mr Robert Maskey, the firm's owner, had decided to retire and close the firm's shops in Cardiff, Newport and Bristol. There were bargains to be had and, despite snow and ice, customers crowded into make the most of them. (
South Wales Echo
)

1828:
The contractor responsible for supplying gas for street-lighting in Cardiff was, by special resolution of the Council, allowed to provide gas to balloonist Charles Green to enable him to make a demonstration flight. The ascent was made by Charles's son who lifted off from a field near the town centre at about 6 p.m. The event ended in tragedy – the balloon was carried off by the wind over the Bristol Channel and was eventually recovered, without its occupant, from near Wedmore in Somerset. (William Rees,
Cardiff: A History of the City
, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

1938:
The death of Cardiff ship-owner Reginald Arthur Gibbs (born 1872). A noted sportsman, he had played sixteen times for Wales, including scoring a try against England in 1910 at the first game played at Twickenham. He was part of the team which beat South Africa in 1906. (T.D. Breverton,
The Welsh Almanac
, Glyndwr Publications, 2002)

2004:
The final event in the inaugural week at the new Wales Millennium Centre was a Royal Gala evening attended by the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles. Stars taking part included Charlotte Church, Bryn Terfil and Shirley Bassey (who had been born barely half a mile away). (John O'Sullivan & Bryn Jones,
Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration
, The History Press, 2005)

1900:
Mr Winston Churchill MP spoke at the Park Hotel, giving what the advertising poster promised would be a ‘deeply interesting lecture' on ‘The War As I Saw It'. The war was the Boer War in which he had been actively involved. The event had been promoted by the Cardiff Naturalists Society. Reserved seats cost 7
s
6
d
, other seats in the balcony were 5 shillings and unreserved seats downstairs cost 2 shillings. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1934:
Supported by many of their parents, pupils at schools in South Wales protested about being denied a day off to celebrate the wedding of Prince George and Princess Marina of Greece. (
South Wales Echo
)

1973:
Birth in Cardiff of Welsh international footballer Ryan Giggs, the son of Danny Wilson who played rugby for Cardiff before going north to play rugby league for Swinton. Giggs grew up in the Ely area, spending much of his childhood with his maternal grandparents. His career for Wales ended with his retirement from international football in 2009. (T.D. Breverton,
The Welsh Almanac
, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

2002:
A Cardiff grandmother named as Britain's Worst Driver admitted that the car that she won in a reality TV show went up in smoke the first time she drove it. Sixty-year-old Kay Brown thought she would be safe on the roads when she won the battery-operated vehicle with a maximum speed of just 30mph but disaster struck when she recharged the battery from her household electricity supply instead of using the special charger provided. However, she felt she was not as bad as fellow Cardiff motorist Maureen Rees, who found fame in the BBC
Driving School
programme. Maureen had spent £5,000 on driving lessons and finally passed her test on the eighth attempt. (
Western Mail
)

2010:
Public meetings were held around Cardiff to consult local residents about plans for new housing developments. There was a difficult balance to be struck between protecting green areas and the growing population's need for homes. The Welsh Assembly's planning officers had said that Cardiff's refusal to release land for building meant the city could not provide the 27,000 extra homes the city would need by 2021. (
South Wales Echo
)

1737:
The first lighthouse was built on Flat Holm. Sixty soldiers had been drowned in a shipwreck there the previous year. The Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers agreed to support the petition of William Crispe, the tenant on the island, for permission to build one. To pay for its construction tolls were levied ‘for all Bristol ships to or from foreign ports one-and-a-half pence per ton inward and outward, according to their reports of tonnage at the custom house – and double these dues on foreign ships. For all coasting vessels to or from Ireland, one penny per ton; vessels from St David's Head or Land's End up the Bristol Channel (market boats excepted) one shilling for every voyage.' Richards in
Cardiff: A Maritime History
writes that ‘before the compulsory registration of British vessels in 1786, Masters often swore that the tonnage of their vessels was less than the real figure in order to reduce the sum payable.'